Why does new Chinese head of UN food agency feed US suspicion?

Beijing’s vice-minister for agriculture Qu Dongyu takes over at the United Nations’ biggest technical agency in August

His election furthers China’s advance at the UN as US slashes its funding of international bodies

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Qu Dongyu met Pope Francis in Rome after being elected to lead the FAO, which is based in the Italian capital. Photo: Twitter

Published: 11:30pm, 8 Jul 2019Updated: 12:34am, 9 Jul 2019

As China’s Qu Dongyu takes up his new position as director general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation next month, the burning question among Western embassies is whether Beijing can draw on China’s experience of beating poverty to feed the world. Or will it be more concerned about feeding the power of the Chinese Communist Party?

The election of the Chinese vice-minister for agriculture to head the UN’s largest technical agency – with a wide brief ranging from trans-boundary livestock diseases like African swine flu to fisheries and food standards – was a significant victory for Beijing as it seeks to expand its diplomatic influence.

Qu won the ballot in Rome last month, securing the votes of 108 of the 191 participating countries to beat candidates from Georgia and France, largely because of support from African and Latin American nations.

There were, however, fewer smiling faces in Washington, where the concern was over whether Qu would use China’s position at the FAO’s helm to further the ambitions of the Belt and Road Initiative, President Xi Jinping’s cross-continental infrastructure strategy, in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The FAO has already endorsed the initiative as a road out of poverty for many developing countries.

“Is [Qu] going to dance to China’s political rule?” said Tim Benton, a director at the London-based non-governmental organisation Chatham House, which analyses and promotes understanding of international issues.